Definition of "dactyle" [dactyle]

• See dactyl. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "In the first place, to be clever at an entertainment, understanding what rhythm is for the war-dance, and what, again, according to the dactyle."
• "Paris, and under the same circumstance of pressure, -- the want of a word that began with a vowel, -- because a word beginning with a consonant could not, of course, follow the last foot of a dactyle ending with a consonant; -- therefore Ovid took refuge in what is called "poetical license," which is a gentle term for expressing departure from syntax."
• "But in both cases I preferred to lock up by the massy spondaic variety; yet never forgetting to premise a dancing dactyle -- 'many a' -- and 'pinion of.'"